We are governed by a greedy system of loopholes that chip away at our income and our freedom. Poor people are paying more to live a lesser life and rich people are paying less to live a richer life. Across the country I have witnessed poor people giving up percentages of their paychecks to check-cashing facilities because they don’t qualify for bank accounts. Those same check-cashing venues offer small loans and provide terms only a desperate person would accept. Some of those people choose to pay their rent week to week because they can’t save enough to afford deposits for monthly rent even though it would be cheaper but is it really accurate to call that a choice. Some of those people rent furniture monthly because they can’t afford to buy a couch or a dinner table or maybe they just aren’t certain that they will be able to maintain the income required for their current living situation. My previous roommate used to collect cans and bottles to help pay his rent. He worked full time. On my way to work, I see others collecting cans and bottles for dimes. I even see them arguing with the people who accept the cans and bottles because they do not accept all cans and bottles. I know people who grew up in neighborhoods they can no longer afford to live in. In my neighborhood, a family of 11 shares an apartment the same size as my two-bedroom apartment that I feel is too small. Friends of mine have lost their apartments because their employers laid them off. I have friends who have been laid-off repeatedly because in every state business is downsizing or simply moving abroad. All around me, the daily expense total increases but the living wage does not. More often than not, I see people who don’t have time, for their families, friends, or for themselves because they work ALL the time. My neighbor’s mailboxes fill with free offers that bait them into contracts that are rarely as beneficial as they were represented to be. Not so long ago I lived in a neighborhood where numerous neighbors lived without running water, electricity, insurance, or heat. Some of those same neighbors had houses that held their balconies up with 2×4’s because that type of repair was too expensive even, if they were lucky enough to own their own home. In the neighborhood I grew up in it is common to cover a leaky rooftop with tarps until repair becomes affordable—if it ever does become affordable. Insurance companies now determine our yearly rates based upon our credit ratings. If your credit rating is bad but your driving record is good your insurance rate will still be high. Across the board, poor people have bad credit ratings. The ill-advantaged scrape and save to pay their bills late or to pay partial amounts. You don’t get good credit ratings by paying partial amounts. Large segments of the United States population are poor and we still tout that we are one of the richest nations. How do we justify that?

I know people who had money that don’t have money now. According to Sam Davis and Daniel J. Weiss, in an article entitled “A Better Solution for Gas Prices“ As of May 1, 2008: “during the Bush administration’s tenure, family income has slumped. Median family income was $61,000 when Bush took office in January 2001. Today, median family income has actually fallen to $60,500.” The country is now full of middle class citizens that once owned homes and now are homeless. For them, adjusting to this emerging economy has not come easily. The people, that I know, who still have wealth and have always lived with money experience discounts and free offers everywhere they go. Their companies send them to far away places and they reap the rewards of air miles. They travel. Those same friends enjoy free merchandise and are often paid to pay attention to new products. Athletes and movie stars make more money than any doctor, teacher, fireman, or police officer could ever imagine. According to James Parks of the AFL-CIO “The 20 highest-paid CEOs of U.S. public companies were paid an average of $36.4 million last year, three times more than the 20 highest-paid European CEOs, 38 times more than the 20 highest-paid leaders at U.S. nonprofit organizations and 204 times more than the 20 highest-paid generals in the U.S. military.“ Upside down might just be an understatement. You, our government, continue to grant tax cuts to the rich while increasing the burdens carried by the middle class. I can only assess that our priorities are upside down. There has to be a better way to live. President Bush told a woman on national TV that her reality of working three jobs to support her children was a “uniquely American” ideal and I thought “Aren’t we lucky?”

• Revoke the George W. Bush tax cuts for the top 1 %. The notion that giving the owners of the companies more money so that it will eventually trickle down to the common people is absurd. People WITH money HAVE money because they know how to KEEP money.

• Respond to the rising costs of oil by releasing measured portions of the strategic oil reserve.

• Implement public financial programs that advocate, mediate and educate on behalf of the American middle class so that the less fortunate can protect themselves from greed.

• Mandate a “Living Wage.” The minimum wage, in the US, is more equivalent to a poverty wage. Congress has begun the move toward a higher minimum wage and I commend this move. In saying this, I think it is also important to note that raising the minimum wage is not enough. While reading the UFE’s 14th Annual CEO Compensation Survey I found that “Workers at the bottom rung of the U.S. economy have just received the first federal minimum wage increase in a decade. But the new minimum wage of $5.85 still stands 7 percent below where the minimum wage stood a decade ago in real terms. CEO pay, over that same decade, has increased by roughly 45 percent.” In addition, Robert Longley writes “Congress has now voted itself a total of $16,700 in raises over the last six years. Since 1990, congressional pay has increased from $98,400 to $154,700 in 2003.” It seems that in the current economy the middle class is seeing less distribution of wealth while the upper class and congress maintain or exceed they’re previous standards of living. Congress must consider the minimum wage for the people in context of geography as well as fluctuations in cost for necessary items and inflation. How better to begin providing a fair chance to all Americans?

• Impose a moratorium on housing foreclosures until those mortgages can be renegotiated to more appropriately represent the economy we now live in. In 2008 alone, our economy shifted drastically when we saw the failing of numerous financial institutions such as: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Sterns, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Washington Mutual. In an article titled: “How to Remedy the Subprime Catastrophe” John Atlas, Peter Drier, and Gregory D. Squires highlight that “In 2007, 405,000 households lost their homes, an increase of 51 percent in 2006. CRL projects that two million families are likely to lose their homes in the next few years. More than 80 mostly subprime mortgage lenders went bankrupt by the end of 2007. Regulators anticipate that between 100 and 200 banks will fail over the next two years.” All the while YOU continually assured the American public that the fundamentals of the economy continued to be strong. AGAIN, you were wrong and AGAIN we pay the price for your neglect. The newest amount of 700 billion dollars of tax payers money is proposed to bail out the very institutions that have misrepresented themselves by the government who told us that the economy was fine in the name of the tax payers who are loosing their homes. As of September 305,291,731 people now live in the United States. Why not give them each one million dollars to stimulate the economy OR if that doesn’t work for you, find a way to help Americans keep their homes and stop making them pay for your mistakes.
• Congress must take more responsibility for regulating the states usury laws. According to Wikipedia, usury laws are defined as “state laws that specify the maximum legal interest rate at which loans can be made.” In further explanation they also offer this tid-bit : “Congress has opted not to regulate interest rates on purely private transactions, although it arguably has the power to do so under the interstate commerce clause of Article I of the Constitution.” At a time when our economy is in a state of crisis it seems logical that regulation of interest rates is necessary.

• Regulation VS. Deregulation: I would like to take this moment to say that I have had enough of deregulation. I would like to take this moment to say that I have had enough of deregulation. We could discuss my cable bill, my electric bill, my gas bill, or my phone bill, what I see on TV, what I put in my gas tank, the quality of the water that I drink, the air that I breathe, or the banks that I entrust my money to and the sentiment of the conversation would be the same. What I, and many others, have learned from deregulation is that I can expect to be charged but not served. Above all, I no longer expect to be safeguarded. Water, communications, gas, and electricity— these are necessities, not luxuries. The government has the power to regulate this national anxiety so that people have less complex, healthier lives. You, my government, have the power to soothe the people and you must use it.

• Corporate greed must be held accountable. In the wake of federal bailouts for the US Airline Industry, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac there has been much public disapproval and distrust. I personally feel that if our government is willing to nationalize the debt of a private company in times of hardship then our government should also be willing to nationalize the profits of that company in more lucrative times. I don’t suggest that the government should start running around seizing corporations and nationalizing their profits at will. I do suggest that if nationalizing debt is a habit we intend to allow then the American people should profit as well. As these companies defer their debt to “we the people,” these bailouts come at a high cost. We, the taxpayers, now witness the passing of a dying corporation, as we are the recipients of their last will and testament. They breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their debt is now in good hands: “We the people,” the same taxpayers that find it more and more difficult to file for bankruptcy when we need a bailout in our own lives. What can be done? I found the following suggestions at legislativeaccountability.org in a posting titled “Handouts should come with strings attached” with a note that stipulated that these same criteria would apply to any corporation filing for bankruptcy protections:

“Any corporation receiving either direct monetary assistance or loan guarantees from the Federal Government shall be subject to the following restrictions

No employee’s total annual compensation package, including any deferred compensation accruing, may exceed the salary of the President of the United States

All “golden parachute” clauses in the contracts with current or former employees are immediately declared null and void

The corporation may not loan money to employees or directors

The corporation is forbidden to engage in any lobbying activities at any level of government, nor may it contribute financially to any organization that engages in lobbying

…Corporate welfare is not the free market at work, and We the People have a right to expect something in return for our tax dollars, and the right to demand that no corporate executive claim to be worth more than our executive.

• For the sake of the American Public Enact Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights:

“Cardholders deserve protections against arbitrary interest rate increases

Cardholders who pay on time should not be penalized

Cardholders should be protected from due date gimmicks

Cardholders should be protected from misleading terms

Cardholders deserve the right to put limits on their credit

Card companies should fairly credit and allocate payments

Card companies should not impose excessive fees on cardholders

Vulnerable consumers should be protected from fee-heavy sub-prime credit cards

Congress should provide better oversight of the credit card industry.”

• I would further propose that the above guidelines or the spirit of these guidelines be applied to the banking industry as well.

• Cap the income of CEO’s by maintaining a minimum ratio of “CEO pay rate” to “Employee pay rate.” For instance an example might be, that no employee, contractor or otherwise, will receive pay no more than say 60% higher than the lowest paid employee—or some well thought out version of that. The Annual CEO Compensation Survey, that I mentioned earlier, noted in it’s findings that “CEOs of large U.S. companies last year made as much money from just one day on the job as average workers made over the entire year. These top executives averaged $10.8 million in total compensation, over 364 times the pay of the average American worker, a calculation based on data from an Associated Press survey of 386 Fortune 500 companies. “ The economy is top heavy. We must restore balance.

• Predatory lending is out of control. Loan centers and credit card companies target low-income individuals whose needs often outweigh their education. As law-makers, you have not only chosen against providing accessible assistance to those who desperately need it, but you have shown a further lack of consideration by refusing to acknowledge the effects of your decisions on the circumstances of the less fortunate. Jeanette Bradley and Peter Skillern discuss these practices in an article titled “Predatory Lending. Subprime lenders trick homeowners into expensive loans” In this article, they point out that “studies by Freddie Mac and Standard & Poor’s indicate that 63 percent of subprime borrowers would have qualified for conventional “A” or “A-” quality loans.” As a nation, we have failed to protect the needy from the incessant pursuit of companies who KNOW better. Our soldiers, minorities, their families and our college graduates are targeted just as easily and as often—if not more. Who is protecting them?

• Promote housing solutions that expand the opportunities and accessibility to decent, moderately priced, conveniently located housing for every American. Brookings.edu notes “With one-third of Americans in renter households, more families cannot find apartments or homes that they can reasonably afford. The nation’s housing challenges undermine other top domestic priorities: making work pay, leaving no child behind, growing the economy and protecting the environment.” We must be committed, as a nation to providing stability so that we may move forward together.

• Incentives for companies that do not “Outsource.” Outsourcing has affected homes throughout the country. Companies are paying cheaper labor costs and making more profits at the expense of American families. Even Haliburton now resides in DuBai. Entire towns have folded up their sidewalks and closed their doors following the trend of factories that have shut down and relocated to other countries. “Made in America” used to be a sign of pride, now we just assume it was made somewhere else.

• Reduce Public Debt. As of 04/03/08 the “total public debt outstanding” totals 9,454,715,220,812.19. Our country has extended its credit limits beyond the acceptable boundaries. We cannot help others, if we cannot help ourselves. Any basic financial seminar will discourage using money that you do NOT have, to pay for what you WANT but do NOT need. America now employs this approach as standard practice in its fiscal goal setting. As a country, we are not as rich as we once were. We sell off bits and pieces of our economy to foreign entities more and more every day. In fact, the Chrysler building was just sold for a pretty penny. If this continues, our country will no longer belong to us. Where will we be then?

• Bankruptcy reform: The most recent reform to the bankruptcy guidelines seemingly enabled corporate greed while it disabled the last resort survival tactics of the average citizen. Bankruptcy is often the inevitable aftermath of predatory lending, and or overwhelming unpaid medical expenses. This option offers salvation to many good American families or, perhaps more appropriate, it did. Future bankruptcy reform is necessary. As it stands, bankruptcy is not written for the relief of the common people. All future reforms must prioritize the citizen’s needs and the environment that brought that citizen to those needs. This reform must also clarify whether or not a corporation deserves the same rights as a human being. When corporations lose what they own to bankruptcy, they walk away bruised but not beaten. When an individual loses their belongings to bankruptcy, they just keep walking because they no longer have a home. How is that the same?